24Oct12

Bani Walid, Libya, has been under siege for nearly three consecutive weeks. A
man whose family is in the besieged city spoke with RT, and described the
horrors allegedly taking place: Civilians are killed every day by toxic gas and
heavy tank fire.

Bani Walid, the last stronghold for supporters of deceased Libyan ruler
Muammar Gaddafi, has been under siege for 20 days, with no resolution to the
conflict in sight.

RT has learned that militias are reportedly shelling the city indiscriminately,
with footage from Bani Walid showing dead bodies, and women and children
with missing limbs and disfigured faces.

A man named Faraj, who is currently in Egypt but is in contact with relatives in
Bani Walid, spoke with RT and claimed that the militias are committing
genocide.

Militias have reportedly encircled Bani Walid, and are not allowing any
supplies into the town including food, water, medicine or humanitarian aid. The
town's electricity and gas has also allegedly been cut off.

'Massacre in Bali Walid'

Faraj told RT that "the city has been exposed to genocide from Misrata militias
that are cooperating with Al-Qaeda groups."

Several graphic clips published on YouTube claim to show the brutal aftermath
of the recent shelling in Bani Walid.

"They attack the city and are using heavy machinery to demolish the houses,"
Faraj said. "They are using internationally banned toxic gases against civilian
people and they bombard the population with tanks."

Government-affiliated militias are under the orders "to kill all protesters," he
said. "The city is blocked from all sides; there has been no medicine, no food,
and no humanitarian aid. There is nothing inside the city."

"There is bloodshed in Bani Walid and nobody can hear the people inside the
city. [The] militias' guns come from the outside including from Sarkozy and
Obama's administrations."

The siege was prompted by troops seeking to arrest those responsible for the
death of Omran Shaaban - the man credited with capturing Gaddafi last year.
The Warfalla tribe controlling Bani Walid was accused of kidnapping and
torturing Shaaban.

UN fails to act

"We hope media will come to Bani Walid to see the truth for themselves and
report on the story," Faraj said. "Right now, the information that is coming out
is lies and forgery."

"We plea for the humanitarian agencies of the world to help us save our
families inside Bani Walid. The people need immediate help and an
intervention from the outside," he said.

So far, the UN has taken no action to curb the ongoing violence. Russia
attempted to propose a draft statement calling for a peaceful end to the
violence in Bani Walid, but was blocked by the US.

"There is no government in Libya, only armed groups and all of them are under
Al-Qaeda control," Faraj said. "The situation is very dangerous and there is no
control from [the] government."

Barry Lando, an analyst of Arab issues, recently told RT that the main power in
Libya is bands of armed militias.

"Now you have hundreds of militias, many of them heavily armed," Lando said.
"Hundreds of thousands - maybe millions - of weapons are out there; more
weapons than people. The new government seems to be standing there
looking at what's happening around them, nearly powerless to do much about
it."

And since the country is awash with weapons, the violence seems unlikely to
end anytime soon.

"Despite the setting up of an interim government in Libya with the backing of
the US, the country is still very much troubled by tribalism, tribal
confrontations, confrontations between pro-Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi forces,
and it is not expected that law and order and peace and development can be
restored to the country within a very short period of time," Joseph Cheng,
political analyst and professor at Hong Kong University, told RT.

The fragile new Libyan government experienced disarray at the outset when its
Congress dismissed Mustafa Abushagur - the first prime minister to be
elected since the uprising - for failing to form a new Cabinet.

The country's new Prime Minister, Ali Zaidan, is now also in danger of losing
his post if the Libyan National Congress rejects his proposed cabinet - a firing
that could further weaken the perceived legitimacy of the new government.

[Source: RT, Moscow, 24Oct12]

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